1. Field: This invention relates to valves adapted for channeling fluids. More specifically, this invention is directed to a flush valve assembly for use in conventional toilets.
2. Statement of the Art: Water is a critical necessity for the continuation of human life. As an increasing population places more demands on the already scarce supplies of water, efforts both in the private sector and in government agencies have been directed toward the more efficient use of this resource. One of the most quantity-demanding uses of present water supplies is that of waste disposal, specifically human waste disposal.
In the past few years, many approaches have been advanced for limiting the quantity of water required for effectively and safely disposing of human waste. In this vein, the art discloses several attempts directed to reducing the quantity of water utilized in the operation of conventional toilets. Simple attempts include the placement of bricks, weighted plastic bottles or other articles into the toilet's water storage reservoir. These efforts have principally focused on reducing the storage capacity of the reservoir and thereby limiting the quantity of water that is discharged per flush cycle. Other attempts have involved bending the arm which supports the float. The arm controls the water intake valve responsible for refilling the reservoir to an operating level. Alternative approaches have involved the use of baffles, placed either about the reservoir sidewalls or within the reservoir outlet, adapted for retaining water within the reservoir during flushing.
The aforesaid approaches have all been directed to reducing, by a constant amount, the quantity of water discharged from the toilet's reservoir per flush cycle. While on its face, this objective appears desirable, problems have arisen for the user of such approaches. In the past, toilets and the sewer pipelines associated therewith were designed using the flush capacity of the toilet's storage reservoir as a governing criteria. With the reduction in the quantity of water discharged during a flushing cycle, resulting from adoption of the above-described approaches, oftentimes the decreased quantity of water discharged in a normal flush cycle is insufficient to dispose adequately the waste materials in the toilet bowl through the residential sewer lines, and into the municipal sewer system. With repeated operation of the toilet, soon the residence's sewer lines became clogged, necessitating costly and unpleasant cleaning operations.
Resultingly, while the aforesaid approaches do achieve the objective of reducing the quantity of water consumed by toilet operation, on the other hand, these approaches oftentimes have proved themselves less than advantageous in that they created other problems, whose resolution is more expensive than the cost savings achieved through the conservation of water.
There continues to be a need for structures which can at once address the problem of conserving water in toilet operation, while simultaneously and adequately relaying the waste materials from the toilet bowl, through the residence's sewer lines to the community sewer system.